A couple of years ago Portuguese Paolo Soares started his own death metal project named Ruttenskalle. Due to the pandamic he was able to spend enough time at this project, which resulted in a brand new (debut) album! About this album, and some other things I had a nice chat with Paolo!
Hey Paolo, thanks for taking the time for an interview with Maizter Underground! How are you doing? Covid and all.
I’m going fine, thank you! Hope you guys are going good too! Been working more from home since the start of pandemic, but still working a lot fortunately!
How did the band come to exist?
Firstly, I would like to clarify, that this is not a typical band, but more a solo side-project of mine. The idea behind making this a reality, comes back from a few years ago, but only now, due to the pandemic situation, it was possible. So yeah, I think I could say, I owe this project to the Covid-19.
Can you introduce the bandmembers one by one?
For now, and officially, I am the only “bandmember”, so I’ll talk a bit about me. My name is Paulo Soares, I’m a Portuguese metalhead, living near Lisbon, and have been involved in the local metal scene almost for two decades now. I first started my “career” as a guitarist, but soon after founded my first project as a drummer, about 15 years ago, and that’s the skill I’m more known for. More recently, have been also doing music production and exploring my vocals.
You call yourself RUTTENSKALLE. How did you come up with this name and what does it mean?
I come up with this name, because I wanted something skull related, and it also reflected the project sonority, as being a rotten sound. Because this project is also a worship of the Swedish Death Metal scene, I decided to go with a Swedish name instead, and here it is RUTTENSKALLE, which means ROTTEN SKULL in Swedish Language.
Can you tell me something about the journey this far? Where did the creativity came from for your first “own work” and who (if any) did inspire you?
This journey is almost just beginning, and I feel like this project have much more to give. As stated before, this is a Swedish Death Metal worship project, and is heavily influenced by the 90’s scene. There are two bands, specifically, that inspired me more, and they are of course early ENTOMBED and DISMEMBER. However, there is also some evidence of other influences, even outside the Swedish scene, as for example, the Florida one, as I am also a huge Florida Death Metal fan, and there is also some personal taste involved, so don’t expect an accurate replica of any of these bands
What are the (longtime) goals with RUTTENSKALLE?
My longtime goal is to spread the RUTTENSKALLE sound across the globe. Maybe even turning it into a full time project in the future, who knows.
Are there are singles/ an album coming up?
Yes, it is! I am about to release “SKIN’EM ALIVE”, which is RUTTENSKALLE’s debut full-length Album, on 31th October, thought the Portuguese label Gruesome Records. You can also expect a premiere track to be published in the next days (maybe it’s already published at the time this interview is out).
Do you have any festivals/gigs/shows planned?
Not yet, as it’s only me for now, but I am already working on a plan to make it happen, hopefully during next year.
Allright! Thank you for your time. On behalf of everyone at Maizter Underground, we want to wish Ruttenskalle all the best with all you will do in the future!
If you dont want to miss anything Ruttenskalle or Gruesome Records releases or announces, please follow them thru their socials!
Ruttenskalle:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ruttenskalle
Bandcamp:
https://ruttenskalle.bandcamp.com/
Gruesome Records:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/GruesomeRecordsPT/
Bandcamp:
https://gruesomerecords.bandcamp.com/
If you want to know what Ruttenskalle is all about, please click the following video!
